Persistence
by Lady Nara
Summary: Takaya's in a bad mood, but Naoe won't be put off.


**Disclaimer**: I make no claim to Kuwabara Mizuna's wonderful creation. This story is for the enjoyment of her fans, not profit.

**Acknowledgement**: Thanks to my beta, sabriel75, for her help and encouragement.

Persistence

"Takaya-san."

Takaya started, but didn't turn around.

"The hell do you want?"

"Nagahide told me that you've been temperamental recently." A pause. "Yuzuru-san seemed to think that I should leave you alone."

"Yuzuru is usually right."

"But not always?" Naoe moved closer.

Takaya heaved a sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a grimace.

"How did you even find me?"

Naoe shrugged, coming forward to lean against the railing next to him. They were standing on the bridge over the main roadway near Takaya's school. The setting sun glowed like a coal, sending a dim red light over the buildings outlined against the burning clouds.

"It wasn't that difficult. You told me that you liked to walk in the evenings."

Takaya frowned at this vague reply, but didn't push.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, observing the scenery. With the sky afire, and the red taillights of passing cars streaming away into the distance, Takaya thought that it looked like some painting of damned souls filing into Hell.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Naoe lit a cigarette, blowing smoke meditatively.

"Don't you get tired of it?" Takaya retorted sullenly. "It's not like you haven't seen it plenty of times before."

Naoe watched him quietly for a moment, and Takaya felt his irritation increase. Sometimes Naoe made him feel like there was a script he was supposed to be following and he kept flubbing the lines.

"Some things never lose their fascination." And Naoe chuckled darkly, as if at some private joke.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Precisely what I said. Even after many repetitions, Takaya-san, there are some experiences which never fail to move the heart. A sunset, a storm, a starlit night- even something so simple as a piece of music. Beauty has a way of ensnaring the soul that defeats even the most jaded."

Naoe smiled coldly as he gazed at the diminishing red sun, idly rolling the cigarette between his fingers.

"It probably is an essential element of our humanity that the things which bring us the most pleasure also inflict the most pain."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No?" Naoe faced him, leaning sideways against the railing. There was a knowing look in his eyes that raised the hairs on the back of Takaya's neck.

"Have you never felt it? The sweet ache of the beautiful? Perhaps that makes you something more than human."

"What?"

"It is a sign of limitation," Naoe explained patiently. "The pleasure comes from encountering the beautiful. The pain comes from a realization that one does not possess the beautiful thing, that one's contact with it is only temporary."

He raised a brow. "If you have never felt that pain, perhaps that means you lack nothing. That would put you somewhere beyond the rest of humanity."

He sounded strangely serious, but there was a mocking cast to his expression.

_He's making fun of me._

"Stop it," Takaya bit out.

Naoe's brow creased and he opened his mouth, but Takaya was already striding away.  
"Takaya-san. Where are you going?"

"That's really none of your business, is it? Jeez, don't you have anything better to do?"

Naoe had caught up with him with annoying ease (damn those long legs), and was keeping pace.

"No."

The sincere tone of his answer was the last straw.

"Damn it, what is it with you?!" Takaya whirled on him, fists clenched.

"What the hell do you want? Why are you even here? So Chiaki told you I was in a bad mood. So what? You came out here looking for me because of that? Why? What, are you afraid that I'll endanger your mission or something?"

"Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not a little kid, Naoe. You don't need to check up on me. And maybe I just don't want you following me around, did you ever think of that?"

Naoe seemed on the verge of saying something, but then gave himself a little shake, and instead asked, "Stop what?"

Takaya blinked at the sudden shift in conversation, bluster momentarily lost.

"What?"

"You said 'stop it.' What did you mean?"

"Just…that thing you do, where you're obviously thinking on a different level than you're speaking, so nothing you say makes any sense. And then you just act innocent if I call you on it. It seriously pisses me off. I never know what the hell is going on inside your head, or…or outside of it, either."

Takaya threw up his hands.

"I never understand anything because no one will explain it to me. I don't like feeling stupid all the time."

"You're not stupid."

"Chiaki thinks so. Maybe that's the problem. Half the time you guys think I'm too stupid to understand, so you don't bother trying to explain, and the other half, you think I should already get it all, so you won't say it out loud, even when it's obvious that I don't. Do you think I'm faking or something?"

Naoe's eyes widened, but he didn't reply.

Takaya stared at him with exasperation, before turning away.

"Just cut it out. Okay? If you've got something to say, say it. Say all of it. Don't assume I already know, or that I wouldn't want to know, or that I couldn't understand. Just say whatever you want to say."

Takaya turned back after a moment and found that Naoe was looking aside, expression closed. Takaya's lips pressed together in a hard line and he glanced away as well.

"Not that it matters. It's getting late. You should leave."

"And where will you go?"

"I'll just wander around for a while. It's a nice night."

Takaya's dark tone belied his statement.

"I don't want to go."

"Well, what do you want?"

Naoe considered, and then stepped over to Takaya's side, flicking away his cigarette.

"I want to walk with you for a while."

Takaya eyed him narrowly, before moving to trudge down the darkening street.

"Suit yourself."

They didn't speak for a long time after that. Takaya led Naoe on an ambling tour of the city, pausing now and then to gaze upward and inhale deeply, or moving more quickly and furtively through other areas, for no reason that Naoe could have discerned. Even so, Naoe refrained from questions. He merely kept by Takaya's side, waiting when Takaya stopped and smoothly matching his gait otherwise.

At first, Naoe's persistence irritated Takaya further. Later, he found himself reflecting that Naoe had a rather soothing presence.

Takaya slipped into his own thoughts for a time. So when he looked up and realized where he had finally taken Naoe, he was startled.

Naoe seemed to sense that something was different about this place than the others they had been to that evening, and looked around with keen interest.

It was an old playground. The moonlight glinted eerily off the metallic faces of playground toys in the forms of various animals. Already somewhat deformed by rust and chipped paint, the giraffes, giant snails, swings and slides, peeked out of the darkness and creaked in the wind, making the lonely area seem like the perfect setting for a horror movie massacre.

Takaya laid a hand on one of the giraffes with affectionate recognition, apparently unaffected by the atmosphere. He moved through the playground with the ease of familiarity, leaving Naoe to pick out a safe route in his wake. He stepped inside a large, mostly empty storage facility around the back, and sat down on some old bleachers against the wall.

Naoe stood in the entrance and gazed at him.

"It's been awhile since I've come here," Takaya said. "Don't know why I did, actually."

"What is this place?"

"Old hang-out. Sometimes there were other guys around, sometimes not. I used to come when things got to be too much at home. Or just when I was bored."

Takaya shifted uncomfortably.

"I stopped coming here when I quit hanging around with delinquents so much. That was soon after I became friends with Yuzuru."

He glanced around the shed.

"Looks like it's not used much, anymore."

"There are cigarettes on the floor. And some broken beer bottles in the corner." There was a faint note of disapproval in Naoe's voice. Takaya ignored it.

"Those are probably old. The real sign is that there are no motorcycles around, and no tread marks. It probably stopped being safe. Another gang, or maybe the cops, started staking it out. Something like that."

"It happens all the time. Places stop being safe, people turn on you- you always have to be ready to move on. It's best not to get too dependent."

Naoe came inside and sat down next to Takaya, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. He rested his chin against his folded hands.

"Do you think human beings can live that way? Without anyone or anything to hold on to?"

"It's better than the alternative, isn't it? Leaning on people only sets you up for a big fall when they leave."

"But if they don't-"

"Everyone leaves. One way or another. It's only a matter of time."

"Not everyone. I am still here." Naoe's voice, though gentle at first, roughened as he spoke.

"I will always be here. Even if you beg me to leave, I will not. If you're going to fear me, abandonment is the last thing you should be worried about."

Takaya opened his mouth to say _I'm not afraid of you or anyone_, but found himself unable to speak the words. There was a rawness to Naoe's speech, like a wound, or a threat, that was somehow reassuring to him. Though the words themselves seemed kind, the tone sounded harsh. Like the truth.

It had been growing steadily chillier as the night wore on, and now that he had stopped moving, Takaya was feeling rather cold. Naoe was a warm presence to his right, large and solid and _there_, though he blended easily with the darkness in his black suit.

"It's Miya's birthday today," he said in a low voice.

Naoe's eyes turned to him. Attentive. Receptive.

"I gave her a present earlier, right after school. Then she had to get ready for dinner with our father."

Takaya kept his own eyes on the floor.

"I…wanted to be there with her. She wanted me to be there. But we both know that putting the old bastard and me in the same room is not a good idea. There definitely would have been a fight, and her birthday would have been ruined."

"Dad isn't home very often. Either he's away on business trips or God knows what else. It's just as well. But Miya still…she misses him."

He took a deep breath.

"A few days ago, I called him. I told him to make sure to be home for her birthday, or else. The conversation did not go well. I didn't think he was going to do it."

"But he came today. She was so happy, to get a chance to be with her father on her birthday. Just to talk to him, and share a meal together. She was really happy."

Takaya blinked back moisture and tried to swallow around the tightness in his throat.

"And I tried to be happy for her, too. But I wasn't really. I'd been hoping that he wouldn't come, so we could spend the evening together. God, she's getting so big. And what with the Yami Sengoku…who knows how many more of her birthdays I'll be around for."

Takaya remembered standing outside in the cool evening air watching the warm glow of his apartment window, knowing that because his family was in there, he could not be.

The thought was too painful. He had forced himself to walk away.

Naoe shifted, jerking Takaya out of his thoughts. He was abruptly horribly conscious of how childish he sounded. So he'd had to miss his sister's birthday. Big deal. If he was going to fuss about something so stupid, what had possessed him to tell Naoe about it?

Suddenly the tightness in his throat wasn't sadness, it was panic. He stood up hurriedly, and took a few steps away.

"Well, it's no use whining. It's all over with, anyway. They're both in bed by now. I can go home anytime." He heard Naoe stand up behind him, and couldn't stop himself from sneaking a look over his shoulder.

The compassion in Naoe's eyes drove the breath from his body as effectively as a fist in the gut. Takaya struggled with himself, terrified that he might actually burst into tears. Fortunately, after a minute, he was able to suck in a breath, and then another, and the danger was past. It was a good thing too, because otherwise he would have been entirely undone when Naoe came up and cautiously placed a large, warm palm on his back, just below the neck.

It felt good. Far too good. It would have been too easy to lean back and shift slightly to the right into the heat of Naoe's body. Too easy, to clench his fingers into Naoe's suit jacket and cry into his chest like a child. His mental alarms, which had been ringing faintly since he'd realized where he was, went crazy.

"You're right," he said, pretending it had been a push. "It's time to go."

Then he walked quickly out of the building. His back seemed to ache with cold.

Naoe followed after a brief hesitation.

Takaya made him confess the location of his car, and showed him the way back. Then he bid him good night and sauntered off with studied nonchalance.

As he made his way to his apartment, Takaya recalled with mortification that Naoe's hand had trembled slightly on his back. In fact, from that point of contact, he had felt the stiffness of Naoe's entire arm. It seemed like Naoe had been holding himself absolutely rigid.

There was no doubt about it. Naoe must have been embarrassed, too.

_finis_


End file.
